When I became an independent consultant in 2013, I was happy to escape the confines of university life (and politics) and relished the opportunity of being able to fit in a modest amount of academic research alongside my consultancy work. The plan was that the latter would pay the bills, while the former would keep me sharp, relevant and credible.
What I didn’t expect was what happened in 2021, which turned into a year of two halves. The first half was focused almost exclusively on rese...
View PageA strong theme running through my recent interviews was the idea that we cannot simply go back to pre-pandemic ways of working. As one person said, ‘I don’t think the world (or students) will let us “go back”. The old world isn’t there any more; there’s nowhere to go back to!’.
My last two blogs highlighted priorities that need to be addressed in future global engagement strategies. One focused on inclusive approaches to developing global perspectives...
View PageIt was exactly twenty years ago, in summer 2000, that I was appointed to set up a university International Office from scratch.
I went from being Deputy Director of a (for that time) reasonably sized International Office in Scotland to inaugural Head of an as yet non-existent International Office on the south coast of England.
It was a wonderful opportunity. When I arrived, one member of staff in External Relations was responsible for ‘everything international’ – from stu...
View PageWithin the higher education sector (and beyond), we’re starting to read some pieces advising us where to focus our efforts when the coronavirus dust settles, but it’s difficult to get the timing right. Some people may be tuned into forward planning, while others are still in fire-fighting mode.
Simon Anholt, founder of The Good Country Index (which measures what each country contributes to the greater good of humanity), has used Twitter to initiate a new hashtag: #staychanged. The...
View PageBack in 2005, I was doing the fieldwork for my doctorate (a DBA in Higher Education Management at University of Bath). This involved (amongst other things) a national survey of UK HEIs (administered via BUILA – the British Universities' International Liaison Association) focusing on key institutional drivers for internationalisation.
This blog summarises the survey findings which were generated exactly ten years ago. I then speculate on what might be different if I were to re-run th...
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